[DDDorian]

After six months and dozens of entrants we've whittled down the crowd to four finalists. Wanna help your favourite win the inaugral Ed Devries Encouragement award and an awesome swirl finish from Out Of This Swirled? If so, click here and get a-votin'!

[DDDorian]

In order to answer a frequently-asked question, and to keep the mods' PM inbox from being quite as flooded as they are now, I've written up a guide that will allow you - yes, YOU! - to help keep the boards clean of spam, trolls and stupid misbehaviour and generally make the world a better place.

Say you're absent-mindedly browsing and a post catches your eye that looks suspicious, is needlessly abusive or confrontational or somehow breaks a forum rule - like this one, for instance:



You have a few options. Firstly, you can PM a mod - not a bad idea, but the mods aren't always around to deal with things immediately so you may be left waiting for them to next log on before anything gets done. Secondly, you can start hurling abuse at the poster in question - won't make any difference if they're a spambot and will probably open a whole new can of drama, so don't do it. It is fun, though. Finally, you can report them, and here's how:



See that little "!" icon with the crappy dithered MSPaint circle around it? That's the "Report" button. It appears under a poster's rep bar on the left-hand side of the screen with every post they make. Click it and you'll be taken to a screen like this:



Simply type in your reason for reporting the post - spam, NSFW images, trolling, general annoying/off-topic behaviour - and hit "Submit" and you're done. Once the report is submitted an e-mail is sent to each and every mod, alerting them to the problem. At that point we bust out the spandex and run towards the nearest internet cafe all slow-motion-like. It might sound cool if you're a Stryper fan or something, but it really, really isn't. Reporting posts like this helps make sure we stay on top of things and probably alerts us to stuff we didn't notice ourselves because we're all drunks.

Finally, here's a list of stuff that's appropriate to report:

*Obvious spam/spambot posts and/or posts linking to malicious software

*Posts with links to illegal downloads/warez

*Posts with direct links to NSFW images, or NSFW threads that don't come with a NSFW warning

*Off-topic discussion in inappropriate threads - not a huge deal in General Music, for example, but a definite no-no in the Classifieds, so use your head

*Posts that are needlessly or excessively abusive, offensive or provocative that are causing arguments and thread derailments

*Image=spam and/or posts in 478275849235489-size fonts with all the colours of the fucking rainbow, that shit's just obnoxious

*Stuff that breaks the Classifieds rules, primarily listings from new posters with no contact/feedback details

*Miscellaneous minor stuff - Classifieds threads that you want closed, duplicate threads that should be deleted/merged etc


Well, there you have it. Hopefully that all makes sense. Peace out, mofos!


-The Mod Squad

[s7eve]

Enough already.

The moderators are not Nanny's and you guys are supposed to be adults. DDDorian tried to be diplomatic with the forum etiquette announcement, the time for diplomacy has passed.

As of now any member I find abusing rep will receive an infraction on the first offence and a PERMA BAN on the second offence. This applies to everyone.

I am asking for members to help me by

• Reporting any rep abuse to me.
• No longer signing neg rep, this will help prevent retaliatory rep.
• Reporting any speculation about who left neg rep
• Reporting anything else that may be considered an abuse of the rep system

The mods can see who left rep, report it and we will sort it out. DDDorian gave a good summary of the correct use of rep in his forum etiquette announcement, everyone should read it and if you have any further questions feel free to send me a PM.

[DDDorian]

Ask any of the regular members what they like about this forum and they'll tell you about how friendly, informative and laid-back it is compared to (insert forum here) and they're right. That sort of atmosphere doesn't come about on its own, however - it requires an active effort on the part of everyone here to keep from turning into (insert aforementioned forum here). Contributing to the community isn't difficult and requires just a little thought and consideration to avoid posting things that may not be strictly against the rules but will annoy people enough to make the mods wanna ban you simply out of spite. We can do that, y'know. Feels good, too. Oh yeeeeeeeah.

Anyway, before posting be sure to ask yourself these simple questions:



GENERAL POSTING INFO

Am I being needlessly provocative or childish? - Opinions are like venereal diseases - we all have them and we want the whole world to know about it. Discussing, debating and even arguing about random junk is fun but that's doesn't give you an excuse to be needlessly provocative, act like a dramaqueen or to attack people personally. No pointless hurling of abuse, no goading people into arguing with you and no dragging petty crap from one thread to another (this includes starting a new thread to continue a conversation from a locked/deleted thread).

Is what I'm about to post worth reading? - There are near-infinite ways to contibute something useful or entertaining to the forums. There are a select few ways to contribute something totally worthless. Emoticon-only posts, "+1"s, image-macros, emptyquotes and general low-content posting isn't really worth bothering with. It's not hard to add even just one line of actual opinion, y'know? Similarly, the Off-Topic forum might be more relaxed than the other forums but it's not Twitter or /b/ or Livejournal, so keep your brain switched on.

Am I using proper English? p0571n9 L1|<3 7h15 is annoying and POASTING MOAR LIEK THIS FOR GREAT JUSTICE LOLWUT isn't much better. Post using proper English, punctuate your posts and drop the chanspeak.



WHEN POSTING A NEW THREAD:

Has the topic I'm about to post a thread about been discussed before? - ss.org is over five years old and countless threads have been made over the years about all manner of subjects, with some being more popular than others. Before you start a new thread be sure to use the search function to check if the topic has been discussed before or your question has been answered. If you post a new thread about something that's been discussed every day for five years then people are going to be less inclined to help you out and will resent you until the day you die with malice in their hearts and hatred in their loins.



WHEN POSTING IN AN EXISTING THREAD:

How old is the thread I'm about to post in? - There are plenty of threads that run their course and disappear into the loose, sludgy bowels of the forums, never to be seen again. If you find a thread via search and feel the need to bump it back to the top of the forum with a new post then be sure you have something useful to contribute or a question specific to that particular thread. Again, bump an ancient thread for no real reason and we'll continue to hate your loins or whatever.



WHEN GIVING OR RECEIVING REPUTATION:

Is this something I actually care about? - The reputation system provides an at-a-glance way to check whether someone is worth listening to and also allows you to let them know if you think they're a bodacious dude or an arsepirate respectively. That being said, there are plenty of people who enjoy their time here just fine and ignore the rep system entirely, or don't even know it exists. The next time you go to send someone neg-rep calling them a dumb faggot or receive neg-rep telling you to go back to Harmony Central, ask yourself if it really matters. Ask yourself if it matters if the rep is anonymous or not. Ask yourself if it's warranted. Ask yourself if it's worth the inevitable arguments, either public or private. If your answer to any of those questions is "yes" then go ahead and do whatever you plan to do, but don't expect sympathy from the mods or anyone else.



So there you have it. Adhere to these simple guidelines and the forums will remain to be a happy place filled with lollipops and sunshine. Stray from the chosen path and prepare to pay THE ULTIMATE PRICE (redeemable in GBP).

-The Mod Squad